Here's How to Clear Up Your iPhone Storage Without Deleting Any Photos

Picture this: You just celebrated your birthday and want to take a picture with your family to commemorate the evening, but when you open your iPhone camera you get the dreaded "Cannot Take Photo" pop-up. In a frenzy to free up storage, you delete your earlier snaps from the day — including the cake your daughter made from scratch. The worst. Next time, try this handy trick so you don't have to pick between your precious photos.

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It's super easy: Newer operating systems let you store lower resolution "optimized" versions of photos and videos on your iPhone — and still uploads the full resolution version to your iCloud account. Interested? Thought so. To set this up on your phone, you first need to make sure your iCloud Photo Library is turned on. To do this, go to Settings > iCloud > Photos > iCloud Photo Library. Once that's done, select Optimize Phone Storage.

That's it. Now you'll never have to delete photos in a rush again — and you can have your photo of your cake and eat it, too.